Leonardo DiCaprio and more vow $43 million to help conserve and restore the Galápagos Islands

Leonardo DiCaprio is playing a leading role to conserve and restore the Galápagos Islands.

The Oscar winner has teamed up with numerous organizations to provide $43 million that will go toward efforts supporting the vibrant archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and its wildlife.

“More than half of Earth’s remaining wild areas could disappear in the next few decades if we don’t decisively act,” DiCaprio tweeted Monday. “This is why today I am excited to launch @Rewild - to help protect what’s still wild and restore the rest.”

The actor partnered with the Galápagos National Park Directorate, the Island Conservation organization and other groups in support of the mission.

DiCaprio said the $43 million would be used in part to “bring the Pink Iguana, the Floreana Giant Tortoise and the Floreana Mockingbird back from the brink of extinction, and to ensure the people of the Galápagos thrive with the wild.”

The 46-year-old star said he met with island conservationist Paula A. Castaño during a visit to Galápagos Islands, and announced Monday that Castaño will post on his social media pages as part of the newly announced program.

“Time is running out for so many species, especially on islands where their small populations are vulnerable and threatened,” Castaño said in a statement.

“Galápagos’s pink iguanas, Floreana mockingbirds and other wildlife may soon be lost forever without action. We know how to prevent these extinctions and restore functional and thriving ecosystems — we have done it— but we need to replicate these successes, innovate and go to scale. We need catalytic investments like the one announced today to replicate our successes in the Galápagos and elsewhere.”

DiCaprio is a longtime environmentalist who launched the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998 in an effort to protect the wild.